Air India reduces international service by 15% after deadly plane crash
Raju Shinde/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Air India announced on Wednesday it will reduce international service on widebody aircraft by 15% starting June 20 through at least mid-July.
The decision comes less than a week after an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members en route to the United Kingdom crashed into a building shortly after takeoff on June 12, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said at the time.
The airline said it’s reducing service due to the safety inspection of aircraft and ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which have disrupted operations, resulting in 83 flight cancellations over the past six days.
“Given the compounding circumstances that Air India is facing, to ensure stability of our operations, better efficiency and to minimise inconvenience to passengers, Air India has decided to reduce its international services on widebody aircraft by 15% for the next few weeks,” the airline said in a press release.
Passengers will have the option to either reschedule their flights at no additional cost or receive a full refund.
Air India also said 26 out of the 33 Dreamliners in its fleet have now been returned to service following the required safety inspections by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
The airline is also performing “enhanced safety checks” on its Boeing 777 fleet as a precaution and is cooperating with authorities.
The victims of the deadly Air India crash included 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials.
Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and received treatment, hospital officials said at the time. The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers, was the sole survivor who was aboard the aircraft during the crash.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed in the Meghaninagar area near Ahmedabad airport, in India’s Gujarat state, the city’s Police Commissioner G.S. Malik said at the time.
Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
This plane had more than 41,000 hours of flying time, which is considered average for this aircraft, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics firm.
(WASHINGTON) — A day after a federal appeals court affirmed a court order directing the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a deported 20-year-old Venezuelan man to the United States, the judge overseeing the case has ordered the administration to report “the steps they have taken” to do so.
The man, identified in court records by the pseudonym “Cristian,” challenged his removal after he was sent in mid-March on a flight to El Salvador after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee, found in April that Cristian’s removal violated a class action settlement on behalf of individuals who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors then later sought asylum, and she directed the government to take steps toward “aiding, assisting or making easier” Cristian’s release and return — similar to the remedy ordered by the judge in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Judge Gallagher on Tuesday said she wants the government to provide, by May 27, a status report that includes Cristian’s current physical location and custodial status; what steps, if any, defendants have taken to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States; and what additional steps defendants will take, and when, to facilitate Cristian’s return.
This is the second time that Gallagher, a 2019 Trump appointee, has asked the government to provide this information; the previous time the government filed a motion asking Gallagher to vacate her order, which she denied. The government then appealed to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of the order, which was denied on Monday.
In her April ruling, Gallagher determined that Cristian’s removal to El Salvador was in breach of an existing settlement agreement, finalized in 2024, that protected migrants who entered the U.S. as unaccompanied minors from deportation until there was a final determination on their asylum claims.
The administration has argued — unsuccessfully thus far — that Cristian’s removal under the Alien Enemies Act Proclamation was not a violation of the settlement agreement, and that Cristian is an admitted Tren de Aragua member, which he denies.
Responding to Monday’s ruling by the 4th Circuit, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with the Court’s ruling. No error was made in this individual’s return. This alien is a self-admitted Tren de Aragua gang member and illegal alien from Venezuela. Along with millions of other illegal aliens, he crossed our border illegally under the previous administration.”
“The President and Secretary Noem will not allow a foreign terrorist organization to operate on American soil,” McLaughlin said. “If the court forces his return, he will be removed again.”
(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Ahead of a federal hearing over Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a letter Thursday giving the school 30 days to challenge the administration’s revocation of that certification.
The letter formally notifies the school that its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification would be withdrawn — but backtracks from the administration’s earlier stance by giving Harvard 30 days to achieve compliance.
“Your school has 30 calendar days from the date of service of this Notice to submit written representations under oath and supported by documentary evidence, setting forth the reasons why SEVP should not withdraw your school’s certification,” the notice said. “If SEVP certification is withdrawn, your school will then no longer be approved to enroll or continue to educate nonimmigrant students.”
The notice comes one week after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced she had ordered the termination of the school’s SEVP certification.
“As a result of your refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ policies, you have lost this privilege,” Noem wrote last week in a letter to the university.
At a hearing Thursday shortly after the Trump administration issued its 30-day notice, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said she plans to issue a preliminary injunction that prohibits the Trump administration from revoking Harvard’s SEVP certification without first going through the legally required procedure.
“I do think an order is necessary. It doesn’t need to be draconian, but I want to make sure nothing changes. I want to maintain the status quo,” the judge said at the hearing, which took place as thousands of Harvard students and their families gathered for the school’s commencement.
For now, Judge Burroughs said a temporary restraining order she issued last week will remain in place until a preliminary injunction is ironed out.
Burroughs said that, despite the Trump administration’s backtracking, she felt an order was necessary to protect Harvard’s international students.
“I would feel more comfortable given what has preceded this,” she said during 20-minute hearing. “It gives some protection to international students who are anxious about coming here.”
Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis pushed back on the restraining order, saying the issue had effectively become “moot” since the Trump administration changed course.
“The Department has decided it would be better, simpler going forward, to go through the procedure,” Davis said.
Despite the change, Harvard attorney Ian Gershengorn said that a restraining order was still necessary, arguing that the Trump administration was unlawfully violating the school’s First Amendment rights by retaliating against the school for its decision not to budge to other demands from the government. He called the recent notice “the next step” in the Trump administration’s campaign to retaliate against the school.
“There seems to be a different set of rules, procedures for Harvard,” he said. “The First Amendment harms we are suffering are real and continuing.”
Judge Burroughs suggested that the parties might end up coming back to court in a few months, once the legal process has played out, to determine if the potential revocation is retaliatory.
“By that point, we think the case would be quite different,” Davis said.
Arguing that the Trump administration actions are part of a “campaign to coerce Harvard into surrendering its First Amendment rights,” Harvard has alleged that the SEVP revocation is unlawful because it violates the school’s free speech rights; that the policy is arbitrary and therefore violates the Administrative Procedure Act; and that the policy runs roughshod over the school’s due process protections because it was not given the opportunity to respond to the revocation.
“The surrounding events, and Defendants’ express statements, make clear that the Department of Homeland Security took these actions not for any valid reason, but purely as punishment for Harvard’s speech, its perceived viewpoint, and its refusal to surrender its academic independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” the school said in its lawsuit against the Trump administration.
“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the suit.
DHS officials have said that the revocation was necessary because Harvard failed to turn over information about international students — including disciplinary records — as requested by the Trump administration.
“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused.’ DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement last week.
Harvard is also fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to freeze more $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to the school. Harvard filed a separate lawsuit to challenge the funding freeze in April, and the next hearing in that case is set for July.
Trump has continued to ratchet up the pressure on the school over the last two months, threatening to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, directing his administration to cancel contracts with the school, and continuing to demand information on international students. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump suggested that Harvard should cap the number of international students to 15% of the school’s total student body.
“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools, they can’t get in because we have foreign students there. But I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country,” Trump said.
(NORFOLK, VA) — A 21-year-old Navy sailor who mysteriously disappeared in Virginia has been found dead, and another sailor is in custody, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said.
Angelina “Angie” Resendiz was last seen on the morning of May 29 at her barracks in Miller Hall at Naval Station Norfolk, according to the Virginia State Police.
Resendiz’s body was found in a wooded area in Norfolk on Monday; the remains were confirmed to be the missing sailor on Tuesday, NCIS said.
Another Navy sailor “has been placed in pretrial confinement” in connection with Resendiz’s death, NCIS said. The sailor was not named.
“Charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice are pending,” NCIS said in a statement. “NCIS remains committed to uncovering the facts surrounding the tragic death of Seaman Resendiz to ensure accountability and justice.”
Resendiz, a Texas native, was a culinary specialist assigned to the USS James E. Williams, the Navy said.
Resendiz joined the Navy in 2023 after high school “because she felt it was something that called her,” her mother, Esmeralda Castle, wrote to ABC News last week.
As a culinary specialist, “She thought that one day she might be able to cook for the president and other world leaders,” Castle said. “She worked really hard on her ship.”
“People that care about Angie shared with me that the last person she was with was missing with her,” and “that person showed up [on June 2] but not Angie,” Castle said.
“There are no answers for me,” she said. “I just want my kid.”
